Lake The Posts :: Trust Yourself

By Lake The Posts on October 8, 2012

In the wake of yet another blown second half double-digit lead, the Wildcat coaches might be served best by practicing what they preach ? ?Trust Yourself?.

I was terrible at standardized tests. Awful.? I happened to be a very good student, and I was fortunate enough to get good grades.? However, unlike the majority of Northwestern students I met when I first arrived on campus I thought my public high school was very challenging. Most people I met were simply more intelligent than I was at NU, I had just outworked my high school classmates to get there. I studied as vigorously as I played sports. But, when it came to taking standardized tests, I knew I was in trouble. I called it the ?overthink?.? I was prepared, I?d studied my tail off and had muscled through enough practice tests that I always felt ready for gameday. However, when I got deep within the test-taking, my mind would get the best of me. ?Wait, that?s too easy, if it is answer ?b? then the 20 million other kids taking this test will obviously be picking that as well. Let me reconsider, I must have done something wrong.? That was the thought bubble that would torment me. I failed to recognize the fact that perhaps I was so well prepared it was supposed to be that easy.? I failed to trust myself.

Not a televised game goes by without the young Wildcat staff member holding up the black baton with white lettering that reads ?Trust Yourself? as the ?Cats enter and exit the field. In TV parlance, they call this ?bump shot?, which means it buffers the audience either coming back from or going in to a commercial break.? As Saturday?s game at Penn State wore on and three-and-out after first half three-and-out forced all of us to strain, I couldn?t help but think of this irony. Pat Fitzgerald and the ?Cats coaching staff seemed to be devolving in to my mentality in standardized tests.

Penn State completely owned us for much of the first half. Our first three and out was a result of trying to avoid a safety after being pinned at our own 1-yard line. Our next several failed drives seemed to be a result of overthink.? Yet, there we were recovering a muffed punt deep in Penn State territory down 10-0 when Kain Colter took over.? He ran a flawless option pitch to Venric Mark for a TD which prompted the best analysis of the game from the ESPN crew of Dave Pasch and Brian Griese. Griese pulled out the telestrator pen and broke down how Penn State was incapable of stopping this play based on our speed and advised Northwestern to go to Colter to get it going. We never really did.

Trevor Siemian got the call on our next series and had his best drive of the day. He capped off the drive with a beautiful pass and amazing fingertip catch by WR Tony Jones. Somehow we were up 14-10 at the half and had played by far our worst half of football.? Fitz?s halftime interview with Jenn Brown made even me nervous with how much pressure he was putting on our opening second half drive. I was absolutely stunned to see Siemian emerge from halftime as our QB.? I felt it was the perfect time for Fitz to take control of the game and start playing Colter with a healthy dose of the zone option read, with some steady short passes. I was convinced if we could march down for 7 we?d bury this team. Obviously you know what happened from here.

The most disconcerting thing about the second half (and there is a lot to choose from) was that we never played to our strength.? Yes, I realize Penn State?s defense is not Indiana, or even BC, but we never played to our strengths. Kain Colter had just run for 161 yds a week ago while double-dipping as a WR.? He had five runs in the entire game on Saturday. Trevor Siemian seemed determined to go to his #1 WR target all day long (Kain), despite the fact that he was draped by 2-3 guys in zone coverage.? Venric Mark, when given the ball, made great things happen between the tackles, yet we failed to give him the ball (13 carries with a 5.5 ypc average).? The ?Trust Yourself? baton should?ve been passed around the coaching staff.

We?ve been a great rushing team all season long, but the overthink seemed to be ?they know we?re going to rush with Kain and Venric, so let?s keep Trevor at QB and we?ll throw all day on them?.? Yet, this didn?t seem to be a wrinkle to keep them off-balance, it turned in to becoming the entire gameplan.? Hey, who knows, it might?ve worked on some days, but it clearly wasn?t working on this day. Trevor was off, sailing passes well over guys? heads, forcing passes in to places he shouldn?t, it just simply wasn?t his day. However, our staff didn?t trust themselves to go to our bread and butter. Fitz had promised us ?Chapter Two? of the rotating Kain Colter/Trevor Siemian offensive weaponry, but instead we never opened the book.

We never really got to see how Penn State could handle the zone option read. We didn?t get to see the coaches? mantra of making sure the best 11 guys are on the field and getting the ball in their hands.? The ?players, plays, schemes? offensive mantra seemed to be in reverse.? Most importantly, the staff failed to have any feel for the game. Even when we went behind and momentum had rolled over us like a Tsunami, Trevor and Mike Trumpy were out there instead of the tough-to-stop Kain and Venric. I like all our guys, I really do, but we never really gave ourselves a shot to see if Penn State could stop the Kain and Venric show. It seemed like classic overthink from a game plan perspective. It was me taking a standardized test.

Fans are fickle. The collective readership entered the year hoping we?d use more Trevor and find a way to keep both on the field without it becoming a predictable offense. No one, outside of the coaches and team, saw this year?s squad as one of the best rushing offenses in the B1G. However, Fitz, McCall and the ?Cats offense proved how little we really knew and it is rather ironic that halfway through the season, the same fans that were pleading for Trevor to get snaps at QB were (including me) begging for Colter to get?back to QB on Saturday. To Fitz?s credit (and God knows, when he and the staff don?t make in-game adjustments, this readership lets it be known) he?d been having his best coaching season yet.? The aggressive playcalling on offense, the shoring up the defense after mistakes were made in the secondary, he and the staff had been outstanding to date.? They simply didn?t trust themselves in this game.

We?re halfway through the season and 25% through the B1G schedule and I?m not sure who we are. Are we the 6-6 or 7-5 team that we thought in the preseason, or, will this team surprise and put up say, 9 wins this year setting the stage for yet another season of great expectations in 2013? Could it do even more given the context of the B1G?

By now, our fan base has gone from being irate to just disappointed. I got criticized by many for putting too much weight and hyperbole on the Penn State game. I listened and thought, ?maybe they?re right?.? Now, in the wake of the loss, I?m more convinced than I was before the game, that was a once in a decade opportunity that we just squandered.? The good news is the B1G is so average that we are very much alive, if we get back to what we?ve been good at all season long. The bad news is we had a chance on ESPN to capture the national audience with the fun that is the Kain/Venric/Trevor show.

For the first time in the entire Fitz era, I saw comments from players in the postgame that were actually newsworthy.? There was no ?flush it? or ?1-0 this week?. Rather, you had the two guys who even the most objective fan would say deserved to get more touches on Saturday, actually speak their minds, honestly.? Kain Colter seemed to underscore the overthink from a gameplan perspective when he tried to rationalize a gameplan that saw him have 8 total touches in a game, one week after he seemed to be in on every play. Venric Mark wondered exactly what most of us did on why we didn?t challenge Penn State with our bread and butter when he said ?We did not start out running the ball between the tackles, which I thought we should have. As the game went along, we did.? ?.? Fitz, of course, pinned it all on himself and the coaching staff as Teddy Greenstein reported on Saturday:

We got beat at our own game,? he said. ?Our blueprint is exactly what they did.?
?This one?s on us as coaches,? Fitzgerald said. ?When we don?t execute, we don?t tackle, it?s our fault ? my fault in particular ? as the head coach.?? ? Chicago Tribune, via Teddy Greenstein 10/6/12

The ?Cats loss fed all of our irrational fears in facing history. Penn State always beats us when we?re at a key momentum point in a season and the program. The ?Cats never win after getting ranked by the AP. We can?t get to 6-0.? All things that really are nonsense, as those historical tidbits played no roll in our ?D? not being able to get one 4^th down stop when it mattered. The good news is we have a game on Saturday at Minnesota, which a week ago lingered as our trap game. Now, well we?d better hope it is our redemption game.? But first, the coaching staff needs to learn to practice what they preach and perhaps tap the ?Trust Yourself? baton as a reminder.

It?s time to move on to Minnesota, who, like everyone we play, has been in the clubhouse watching on a bye week. Nebraska is off this week and should be in great spirits after getting obliterated by Ohio State surrendering 63 points and seeking revenge for our upset in Lincoln last year. It?s time to focus on the Kill. I keep reminding myself that if we can win on Saturday to go to 6-1,2-1 and I go back in time to visit myself in August, I?d have been very, very happy with that.

Shurna Sightings & Knicks NU Connection

John Shurna continues to get good ink in the NY area as this NY Post feature points out. I still can?t think of a more contrasting personna of a team for Shurna then the Knicks, which makes this fascinating. Also, a shout out to Wildcat alum, Brendan Brown (son of Hubie) for landing the Knicks play-by-play radio gig.

Odenigbo Had Surgery

You already knew that freshman DE Ifeadi Odenigbo was done for the season with an injury, but as Teddy Greenstein reports, he actually underwent shoulder surgery a few weeks ago from an injury that occurred back in fall camp. Click here for the story.

Project Pass The Hat

I know days and weeks like this stink. No one loves to congregate after a loss, but my commitment to you is that we?ll be in LTP Pledge Drive mode through Homecoming.? That?s it. We?re seeking donations from you to help improve the site and enable us to grow the level of content that you?ve come to enjoy. I couldn?t be more honored by your support to date.

For a host of business-related reasons, namely the fact that sports obsession satiation is a tough box to check for a 5013c, I set this up as an LLC and therefore there is no real tax deduction. However, it?s our first ask for money in the five plus year history and we hope you can be so kind as to throw some money in to the hat in a gesture that will help all of us. Think of it as a voluntary membership and know that the money is going to go to pay website design and programming, and a slew of related costs that have added up to make this something that we?ll need your help to keep growing. We?re extremely appreciative of ANY amount you?d be so kind to consider to give. We will be giving a portion of the money ? in the name of the LTP community ? to Northwestern, for a cause that we will collectively decide upon together. You can either go to the ?Click Here to Donate? icon on the upper right of this site, of simply CLICK HERE and it will take you to the donation page. Don?t be fooled by the PayPal logo, it accepts nearly every credit card and you don?t need a PayPal account to donate!

FoodieGate ? NYC Area Only

By now you?ve likely heard about the NYC one-of-a-kind watch party for the ?Cats October 20th game against Nebraska. There are only 120 tickets to this part Chef Patrick Connolly party, part NU FanCave all set in a TV production studio and event space. Click here to purchase your tickets ? $135 per head, which includes the top shelf food and open bar plus great NU networking.

Source: http://www.laketheposts.com/index.php/2012/10/trust-yourself/

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